In the wake of Utah's passage of a guest worker/amnesty bill, the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in that effort, and the stance of the Church on immigration issues generally, has come under scrutiny.

While nominally neutral on the issue, the Church seems to have moved toward support for illegal immigrants and opposition to immigration enforcement. Contradictions between official Church policies, the statements of senior Church leaders, and the actions of the Church's public affairs and media groups have sparked considerable debate among members.

A new paper from the Center for Immigration Studies is the first look at this issue. "The Mormon Church and Illegal Immigration" is authored by Ronald W. Mortensen, PhD, a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, retired career U.S. Foreign Service Officer, and member of the LDS Church. The report is available at: http://www.cis.org/mormon-church-and-illegal-immigration.

Among the findings:

The Church still teaches that "Members should obey, honor, and sustain the laws in any country where they reside or travel." In spite of this, the Church baptizes and extends full membership to illegal aliens who are not obeying, honoring, and sustaining the laws of the United States where they now reside.

The Church calls for compassion for illegal aliens who are committing serious violations of U.S. immigration and criminal laws, but ignores justice for an estimated 50,000 Utah children, and over one million Arizona children and their families, who are the victims of job-related identity theft.

At the same time that the Church tells new converts in the poorest countries and villages in the world to stay where they are in order to build up the Church there, its public affairs and media groups and surrogates accuse those who ask people illegally in the United States to return to those very same countries and villages of being mean-spirited and cruel.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent research institute that examines the impact of immigration on the United States.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. —Isaiah 40:31